AUSTRALIAN AND FOREIGN SPORTING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCV, Issue 10920, 31 March 1896, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN AND FOREIGN SPORTING.

The Victoria Amateur Turf Club’s Committee has decided on some very important alterations in their programmes for future meetings. Chief among these was the decision to arrange a Futurity Stakes, of 3000 sovs, to be run at the Caulfield Autumn Meeting of 1898. It will be run over a mile, and two-year-olds will be eligible. Entries will close in June next, and foals will be eligible for nomination. Nominations will be free, foals can be taken on payment of 1 sov, yearlings on payment of 2 sovs, and two-year-olds on payment of 3 sovs at stated dates. Weights will not be published until January, 1898. The next Caulfield Cup stake is to be increased from 2000 sovs to 2500 sovs, the Toorak Handicap from 500 sovs to 600 sovs, Alma Stakes from 200 sovs to 300 sovs, Caulfield Guineas of 1897 from 400 sovs to 500 sovs. The next Caulfield Grand National Steeplechase is to be increased from 1000 sovs to 1300 sovs, the first horse getting 1000 sovs. The Referee says that racing men do not take altogether kindly to the conditions of the Futurity Stakes. It is regarded as a mistake to ask for nominations of foals. “Ajax” (Sydney Referee) does not know what to say about Mlallace. The A.J.C. St Leger should, he thinks, be a soft thing for him, but the gruelling he has got at the Victoria Racing Club’s meeting must have a prejudicial effect upon him, and if started for the weight-for-age events in Sydney he may not show to advantage. Still, he is a colt with wonderful recuperative powers, and he may be quite recovered in a month. His race with Quiver in the Champion was one of the finest things ever seen at Flemi'ngton ; they were at it from the half-mile, and first one and then the other got the lead, but finally they passed the post together. At least, the judge said so, though there were many people who thought that Quiver had just got home. Wallace crossed his legs at the distance, and afterwards swerved right out, otherwise he would have won. He is a very sluggish horse, and wants a lot of riding, but there is always something want-

ing in him. His great merit is the way he will finish under the whip, but he seems to have' a decided disinclination to pass the leading horse. He gets right up and then seems to stop. He seems to look upon this as all he is required to do. Most of his races have been won or lost by a head, while he has run two dead heats this season. Carbine, his sire, never left anything in doubt. When he won he won easily. There was nothing half and half about him. Wallace has grown a lot since the spring, but is still an insignificant sort of animal, and when you look him over after a race you really wonder at him being as good as he is. The Glenlyon (Victoria) Turf Club, according to the Sportsman, had a peculiar difficulty to contend with at their annual meeting on March 4. The Hurdle Race was being run, and as the horses jumped the hurdle in the straight the top rail was seen to fall. Passing round to the hurdle at the south-east side one portion of it was observed lying on the ground, and a man to be hurriedly leaving the vicinity. Dr Petherstonhaugh gave chase, and, catching the person, detained him until some of the officials arrived on the scene. The man, who gave his name as M’Eae, admitted having cut the ropes and so letting the second hurdle down, and also to have sawn the first through, and to have driven a thin wire nail in at one end to keep the batten in position. He gave as his reason for committing this act that he had two brothers riding in the race, and he was afraid of them being killed. The stewards held a meeting, and, after discussing the matter, decided to declare the event “ no race,” and ordered it to be run again. They also decided to institute legal proceedings against M’Rae. After a short interval the event was run again, and Fire Brigade was winning easily, when Malta, belonging to the same owner, came, and beat the son of Albury on the post. Malta’s jockey (B. Joyce), however, dismounted when coming back down the straight, and did not weigh in. For this action he (Joyce) was disqualified for six months, and the stakes were paid over to Fire Brigade. A writer in one of the sporting papers (says London Truth ) has been astonished by the statement that Daley received .£3009 for riding Hermit in the Derby of 1867. The writer in question, whose remarks on the subject are evidently founded on the most intense ignorance of the whole affair, states that the present was only £ 1000. As a matter of fact, Daley received the stakes, which, so far as I remember, amounted to about ,£7OOO. The same egregious writer states that Mr Chaplin won £141,000, and that the late Duke of Hamilton laid £IBO,OOO to £IOOO against Hermit. Mr Chaplin’s winnings were really about £30,000, and the Duke of Hamilton’s ridiculous’ bet (which was laid before Hermit had bver run in public) was very soon cancelled. In an account of a visit to the Dunkenfield Park, the birthplace of Gipsy Grand, “ Ranger ” in the Sydney Referee writes:—

Of course the first shown was the “ Father of the Stud/’ Grandmaster, or " Old Dad,” as he is universally called by everybody on the place. The old fellow is twenty-eight years old, and is totally blind. Though his eyesight has departed, his vigour remains, as none of his mares last year proved empty. Grandmaster was imported from England when a yearling by Messrs Dangar and 'White. I believe Mr De Mestre tried to win a race with him, but failed, so he went to the stud early with an unimpaired constitution. As a stud-horse Grandmaster fairly rose from the ranks. Few thoroughbred mares found their way to his paddocks until his great son Sussex showed what a horse he was by winning a National Hurdle Race as a three-year-old, and as a four carried 9st and won a mile and a half race at a Flemington Cup meeting, running the distance in 2min 40sec. He capped all these fine performances by carrying 13st 11b and coming in by himself for the Grand National Steeplechase. Whilst Sussex was bringing the old horse to the front in Victoria, a lot of Grandmaster’s sons and daughters, out of half-bred mares, were carrying all before them in 'Western Queensland. Woolly Western sports were Grandmaster mad a few years back, and many a good-looking horse has been sold for three times his value because the vendor had the ingenuity (or a -weakness for lying) to declare that his champion was by Grandmaster. My namesake, in his circular notes in the Illustrated Sporting and Drcvmatic News, when speaking of Paris, mentions his grandsire (Gladiateur), who was a great racehorse, but an utter failure at the stud. He also gave the opinion of a first-class judge who flourished in the Ws, who said Gladiateur was certain to get either a great sire or a great racehorse if he got a mare to nick with him. The writer wondered whether Grandmaster was the long-expected champion. Mr Bruce Lowe contended that Grandmaster’s dam was the most suitable mare in the kingdom to put to Gladiateur, as she was full of the sire blood which the great Frenchman lacked. She was by Stockwell from Slander, by Pantaloon (a great sire from the same family as Yattendon) from Touchstone’s sister Pasquinade, consequently three great sires, and a sister to a great sire, appear in the first three removes of her table. The fact of Grandmaster’s sire being a failure does not concern Australians, because the old fellow has been a brilliant success as a sire of racehorses here, and the pity of it, his worth was not discovered until late in life. He got his best horse, Gibraltar, in his twentieth year, and from an old mare, too.

The Australian Peer, who was the next one paraded, is let down into stallion trim, and is a horse of splendid proportions. As a racehorse the Peer had few peers, and if he had had a year to himself, instead of having ap Abercorn to bar the way, he would have taken all before him. Abercoi’n beat him in the Sydney Derby, but Darebin’s big son had his revenge in Melbourne. As three-year-olds I fancy there wasn’t a pound between these two. The result of all their three-year-old races depended upon which got the first run. * * * After The Peer had been duly scanned and admired, and his doughty deeds recounted, Eussley was led out. He is one of the handsomest stallions in the province. A rich bay, with black points, fine length, grand shoulders, back, barrel, quarters, and a gentlemanly fellow all over. His performances under colours need not be recounted, except that great performance of his when he carried 9st and beat twenty others in the Doncaster Handicap. His dam. Steppe, was one of the best brood mares ever imported to this country. She left two good performers behind her in England in Eyegrass and Leeds, and brought Eussley, her pledge to Doncaster, with her. She nicked successfully with every stallion she went to except Musket. To Cadogan she threw that good bit of stuff Lady Norah, and Ahteros sired that good horse Too Soon. Mahaki was by Ingomar, and Stepniak by Nordenfeldt. Being by Doncaster, out of such a mare, is a splendid recommendation for any sire. “Eanger” has high praise for the Duckenheld yearlings. The gelding policy has been followed. The pick, in “ Hanger's ”

estimation, was the brown gelding by The Australian Peer from Benhire, by Goldsbrough from Paradigm, and another gelding, full brother to Nobleman. Of the fillies the pick of the basket is a cheeky half-sister to Gipsy Grand, by The Australian Peer. She is a well-built filly, her middle-piece and shoulders especially so She is evidently Robinson’s favourite, and she stood his fondling like an old mare. A bay by New Holland from Tornado, by Gang Forward, from Typhoon, by W ild Dayrell, is a sweet filly, with all the attributes of a fast beginner. (“Ranger” refers to Tempest, winner of the Dunedin Cup of 1893, as this filly’s “ half-brother she was, of course, her full sister). Regarding some of the foals, “ Ranger ” says:—Wild Peer’s dam, Wildfire, has turned ont a splendid specimen of the thoroughbred to Russley. Naomi, whose son, Gipsy Grand, has made her famous, has a splendid Peer colt, who, like his yearling sister, is bold and cheeky. He is a noble, inquisitive fellow, and came up to the buggy and investigated everything and everybody with his aristocratic nose. After he had a short round with Scotch Mary’s Russley colt, whom he knocked out in quick order, he threw a defiant look around and trotted off to his mother for sustenance. That colt will be a good one, because he can take care of himself. The boss foal of the paddock is always the best racehorse'